The Absence Of Theory: Track IV: Text Etude

[Jethro <jethrokins@xxxxxxxxx>]

The Absence Of Theory: Track IV: Text Etude

http://www.sonority.com/phonics/audibles/aot/text_etude.mp3

Time: 8:35
Size: 7.87MB

This is the only track on The Absence Of Theory which
was not created using the UPIC system at CCMIX.  Text
Etude was written in January 1999. It is a musical
explication and demonstration of the boundries of the
speech synthesis engine's capabilities in the
SimpleText text editor included in Apple OS 7.5
through 9.2. No editing was done: this is a direct
recording from the SimpleText application. 'Digit' is
the name I have given to the aesthetic that
characterizes this work. The main qualities of Digit
are:

1. All sound is digitally generated. No acoustic
sampling.
2. The discreteness of microevents is emphasized.
3. Audibly abstract with an avoidance of dance
rhythms.

The primary interest is the exploration and
elucidation of the algorithmic and binary nature of
digital audio.

This is also an example of glitch, revealing the
limitations of current algorithmic modeling of speech
processes. One could say that this is an algorithmic
composition,  but it is more a sabotage of the
algorithms' purpose. This is an anti-algorithmic
composition, the hacking of a speech engine through
it's only open port - the text itself. Based on
phon-rows (tone-rows based on groups of phonemes), the
work is broken into seven parts: Introduction, Labial,
Vowels, Fricative, Plosive, Liquid/Glides, and Outro.
The plosive "te" marks the end of each section and is
the glue for the work globally. 

- J
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http://sonority.com

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